by Rebecca Cochran
 
Today is Schubert’s birthday and I’ve just recalled a post I wrote a few years ago entitled “Where Good Ideas Come From.” In it, I share the story of how, when Schubert’s friend and fellow composer, Lachner, called on him unexpectedly one day, Schubert suggested that they have some coffee. Supposedly, when Schubert began to grind the beans in his old, rusty coffee mill (his prized possession), he began singing the themes of what would become his String Quartet in D minor, Death and the Maiden.
 
Earlier this month, I wrote about Bach’s fascination with coffee in my post about his Cantata 211, nicknamed the Coffee Cantata. In it, Bach and his librettist, Picander, tell the story of a young woman addicted to coffee. This cantata, really a miniature comic opera, was probably first performed in 1734 or 1735 at Zimmermann’s coffee house in Leipzig.
 
Hmmm…there’s something about coffee. Starbucks, here I come!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I distinctly remember the first time I heard a Bach Duetto live. I’m referring to the Four Duets, BWV 802-805 from his Clavier Übung III.
 
A pianist colleague was accompanying several other wind soloists and me on a faculty recital. On the day of the performance, one of the soloists took ill and had to cancel. This colleague, on the spur of the moment, performed the first two of the duets in her place as a way to fill out the program.
 
I was immediately taken with both the simplicity and complexity of these keyboard duets. Some describe the A section of the F major duet as “absolute perfection,” achievable only by Bach. In the B section, however, Bach seems to rebel, breaking all of the “rules” of his day. The duet ends with a return to the A section, in true da capo aria style.
 
I love the rebellious sides of Bach. This represents only one of many such examples.
 
Enjoy this recording of the Four Duets by pianist, Sergey Schepkin.

​by Rebecca Cochran
 
Japanese telecommunications company, Docomo, a few years back, painstakingly built a “forest xylophone” to be used in their advertising spots. They chose Bach’s familiar aria, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring to show off their handiwork.
 
Bach in the Forest never sounded so good! Enjoy listening/viewing here.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
Was J.S. Bach the “Father of Agile Software Development?” Some think so.

In her blog, Karen Faith thanks Bach and her musical practice for allowing her to create “a design method based on the agile process that includes iterative cycles of research, design, testing, development and adoption planning woven together in a contrapuntal chorus of creation." She continues, "In other words, we are learning as we go, beginning each cycle a little smarter, moving forward in separate but harmonious cycles of creation.” Read more on her blog here.
 
In a Forbes article a few years ago, contributor Steve Denning, after attending a live performance of Bach's Mass in B minor, wrote, “Bach did not set out to compose the work in its entirety. Instead he proceeded in an iterative fashion over some fifteen years. It was completed just the year before his death.” In the article entitled, Leadership Lessons From Johann Sebastian Bach, Denning likens this to “Bach doing Agile.” Read the complete Forbes article here.
 
In my own post of January 12th, entitled Bach, the Design Thinker, I share examples of how Bach embraced principles of design thinking throughout his musical career. I’m pretty certain that Herr Bach didn’t use terms such as “Agile” or “Design Thinking” in his daily conversations, but, through his music, he continues to show us the way forward.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
Happy birthday, Mozart!
 
Yes, you heard me right. Today is Mozart’s birthday. He recognized the importance of studying fugues and, supposedly, according to a student, a volume of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier was always lying open on Mozart's pianoforte.
 
Mozart arranged several of Bach’s fugues for strings. It is not known whether Mozart did this to further his abilities in writing counterpoint, to pay homage to J.S. Bach or just to have fun!
 
Although we’ll never know all the answers, we can all, luckily, enjoy the fruits of Mozart’s (and Bach’s) labors. Have a listen to several examples here.  

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The second movement of Bach’s Flute Sonata in Eb Major, BWV 1031 is the well-loved Siciliano. The movement is so exquisitely beautiful that non-flutists are in the habit of stealing it and making it their own.
 
As a flutist, rather than being protective of “my Siciliano,” I am happy that other instrumentalists regard it as a piece worth transcribing. In particular, I forgive pianist, Evgeny Kissin, with his heart-felt performance of a transcription for piano here.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
In my January 23rd post, I wrote about Georges Braque’s painting, Homage to J.S. Bach. ​August Macke, the leading German expressionist painter, also painted an homage to Bach. The painting, titled Colored Composition: Homage to Johann Sebastian Bach was rendered in 1912, towards the end of Macke’s life.
 
Macke was inspired by the new, colorful, Cubist-influenced style called Orphism. It would be interesting to know more about Macke’s connection to Bach.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
When Bach interjected a trumpet part in his works, he did so with great effect. Think of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, for instance.
 
Another stunning example of Bach’s writing for trumpet shows up in Cantata BWV 90. In the third movement, an aria for bass (Es reisset euch ein schrecklich Ende), Bach uses the trumpet to call for the last judgment.

Enjoy this exquisite recording performed by the J. S. Bach Foundation of St. Gallen under Rudolf Lutz. The soloists are Klaus Häger, bass, and Patrick Henrichs, trumpet.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The early 20th century French painter, Georges Braque, is remembered for his role in the development of Cubism. In fact, many of his works are closely associated with those of his friend and colleague, Pablo Picasso.
 
Trained as a classical musician, Braque painted his Homage to J. S. Bach in the winter of 1911-12. Braque’s apparent love of the polyphony inherent in Bach’s music is made visual in this work and others in his Analytic Cubist period. Braque even stenciled the letters of Bach’s name within the painting. His collage, Aria de Bach of 1913 is another representation of his admiration for the composer.
 
Homage to J.S. Bach is part of the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Bach’s use of the gigue dance form in many of his works. Another fine example is the final movement of the Sonata for Two Violins and Keyboard in C Major, BWV 1037.
 
When Breitkopf & Härtel published the trio sonata in 1761, it was attributed to Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (yes, that Goldberg). Three years later, however, it was reissued as a work by J.S. Bach. Nearly two centuries later, in 1953, a noted scholar found the work to be (conclusively?) that of Goldberg.
 
It doesn’t matter to me to whom the work is attributed. Bach/Goldberg ends this church sonata with a gigue (a folk dance)! This frolicking dance is in joyous contrast to the earlier movements. The clever emphasis on the nonexistent downbeat causes me to believe this is, in fact, a work by Bach.

Enjoy listening to this lively rendition by the London Baroque under the direction of Charles Medlam. 

by Rebecca Cochran
 
Bach was a master of the gigue. This lively French dance originated from the British jig. Usually appearing at the end of a suite or other work, it was typically written in triple time (three beats per bar). The number 3 was certainly not lost on Bach.
 
For me, the gigue from Cantata No. 7 represents Bach at his ebullient best. The aria is scored for tenor voice, accompanied by two violins. The writing is intricate and challenging, with the violins sometimes imitating each other a bar apart.
 
Have a listen to the aria, Des Vaters Stimme liess sich hören, featuring tenor, Ian Bostridge and Europa Galante led by Fabio Biondi here. I guarantee you’ll feel like dancing!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The Bach in the Subways Day movement, begun in 2010 by New York cellist, Dale Henderson, has since caught fire around the world. Last year, I was pleased to be one of thousands of musicians in 150 cities and 40 countries, offering Bach’s music freely to the public in subways, on trains, on street corners, in cafes, galleries, libraries and other public spaces. More Bach was played and heard in a single day than ever before in history!
 
Since Bach’s birthday, March 21, falls on a Monday this year, the celebration will (luckily) last for three days, from Saturday, March 19 through Monday, March 21. I’m already looking forward to sharing my love of Bach on Saturday at Ambleside Gallery. See more details here.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The exhibition, The Worlds of M. C. Escher: Nature, Science, and Imagination, at the North Carolina Museum of Art has been so popular that it has been extended through January 24. Knowing that Escher’s work has been associated with Bach’s, I was keen on viewing the exhibition. Following my visit, I wrote a few words about Escher in an earlier post, The Puzzling Musical Offering.
 
As I toured the galleries, I couldn’t help thinking that Escher’s two- and three-dimensional works might be visual representations of Bach’s two- and three-part inventions. Yet another parallel between the two masters is that both Escher and Bach stole from themselves constantly. They regularly reused motifs or thematic material they had drawn or composed earlier in newer works, sometimes multiple times. Escher called these his “arrangements.” To me, these findings are fascinating!

Whether listening to Bach or viewing works by Escher, if we pay attention, the rewards are many.

​by Rebecca Cochran

Bach’s grandson, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach was an excellent composer and continued the long line of musical Bachs. The son of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Ernst Bach studied with his uncles, C.P.E. Bach and J.C. Bach. (Johann Sebastian Bach passed away before Ernst was born.)
 
I learned of Ernst Bach during an interesting conversation with a fellow audience member at a recital I attended last weekend. She mentioned his Dreyblatt, a piece for piano involving six hands! Read more about Ernst Bach and his Dreyblatt here.

Words don’t really do this piece justice. Do yourself a favor and watch this charming video of Maria Genin, Vladimir Genin and Anna Schorr performing Dreyblatt.

by Rebecca Cochran

Supposedly, Bach was fond of numbers. It is said that he was particularly partial to the number 14 since, using alphabetical numerology, the letters “B-A-C-H” add up to 14. And, since Bach wrote music meant to be played backwards and forward (at the same time!), he was also fond of the number 41. Bach scholars have documented many fascinating instances of these and other numbers and symbols hidden within the structure of Bach’s music. Read more about Bach symbolism here.
 
It’s not known whether Bach was simply amusing himself with his various numerology games, or if there was more to it than that. I can’t help but think that if Bach had been able to play the lottery, he might have died a wealthy man!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
Though it was released in 1986 (and reached #1 on the US Country Albums chart), I’ve only recently discovered that Willie Nelson’s album, The Promiseland, includes his own arrangement of Bach’s Minuet in G. There are other throwbacks on the album, but Nelson’s inclusion of the Minuet is a delightful surprise. In fact, he chose to close out the album with his arrangement of this well-loved Bach tune.
 
Listen and enjoy yet another example of the timeless nature of Johann Sebastian Bach.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I’d never really thought of Bach as just an “everyday dude” until I received notice of a talk being presented in Boston this evening. Noted Bach scholar, Christoph Wolff will present the talk as part of The Bach Institute, a collaboration between Emmanuel Music, Oberlin College and Winsor Music.
 
Wolff’s talk is titled, Bach in Leipzig: the everyday life of the Thomas Cantor. Supposedly, Wolff will address questions such as:

• What was Leipzig in Bach's time really like?
• What was Bach's household like?  
• How did Bach pay his bills? 
• How did Bach juggle his myriad duties as composer, teacher, family man? 

 
Read more about the series here and, if you happen to be in Boston this evening, do attend and report back to me. I wish I could be there!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I discovered Chris Thile a few years ago. He is the young mandolin virtuoso who has played with Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers. I’d never really given the mandolin much thought, however, until I heard this spot on NPR: Chris Thile Looks Back to Bach.
 
For years, I’ve been aware of orchestras and other traditional presenting organizations bringing in “crossover” performers to try to bridge the gap between classical and popular music. Sometimes, this moves the needle and new, younger audience members get converted to classical concertgoers.
 
What happened in my case, though, is that Chris Thile converted me into someone who now enjoys listening to the mandolin. As he was stretching the limits of his instrument and recording a solo album, drawing source material from Bach, I was drawn to Thile for his absolute mastery of his instrument.
 
I guess you could say, I was lured by Bach. (It's not the first time and I can guarantee it won't be the last!)

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The trio sonatas are some of my favorites of Bach’s works. I particularly love his Trio Sonata G major, BWV 1038 for flute, violin and continuo. As a flutist, I enjoy the idea of being on “equal footing” with the other two musicians.
 
The Moyse Trio, active in Europe and, following World War II, in the U.S., was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque for their recording of this work on the His Master’s Voice label. Still one of my all-time favorite recordings, you can listen to it here.
 
Read more about the Moyse Trio here.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
As a musician, I get this question often: “Who is your favorite composer?” Without hesitation, my answer, for as long as I can remember, has been and forever will be, J.S. Bach. For me, there are many reasons why.
 
Bach’s music moves me like no other. Though challenging to play, his music is filled with pure joy. Understanding the music of Bach is a lifelong pursuit. Never static, each time I hear or play a work by Bach, I hear something new. Bach’s complex layers are constantly revealing themselves to the focused listener or student. My list could go on and on.
 
In addition to all of these attributes that I attach to Bach, I am convinced that Bach embraced principles of design thinking throughout his musical career. For instance:
 
Bach combined the analytical with the intuitive. He coupled research (listening and learning from others) with his amazing intuition, moving things forward by imagining new possibilities. Bach was a master at synthesizing past, present and future into nearly everything he wrote. Even his staunchly well-loved Mass in B minor is now believed by many to have been somewhat of an exercise that Bach used to convey his latest musical discoveries.
 
Bach employed iterative prototyping. Bach would often reuse his own earlier compositions, revising and improving them. He regularly created three or four versions of a single cantata movement. Referred to as parody in the classical music realm, Bach would re-work a movement from a harpsichord concerto into a cantata movement or parody a minuet from a Brandenburg Concerto in a chorale.
 
Bach took inspiration from a broad range of experiences and cultures. As a young man of only 20, Bach supposedly walked more than 200 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear the older, well-established organist and composer, Dietrich Buxtehude, play. Surely, ideas generated by this experience worked themselves into his music. Bach incorporated a variety of music styles from throughout Europe into his works. For example, Bach composed each of the four movements in his Partita for Flute Alone in a popular dance style of the day with German, Italian, French and English styles all represented.
 
Bach co-created with others. Bach knew he couldn’t go it alone. He regularly looked to others for inspiration and new ideas. One of his most frequent collaborators was the librettist, Picander. Together, they created a large volume of cantatas and other works including, most notably, the St. Matthew Passion.
 
Bach regularly embraced constraint as a source of creativity. Probably the most famous example of this is The Musical Offering, inarguably one of Bach’s most striking works. In 1747, upon a visit to the palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, the aging Bach was challenged to improvise on a difficult theme given to him by the king, himself a formidable composer and flutist. On the spot, Bach improvised a complex fugue at the keyboard. Within two months following his visit, Bach completed The Musical Offering, based entirely on Frederick’s theme. The piece was immediately printed (unusual for Bach's time) and presented with a dedication to the king.
 
Bach wrote music for the people. He composed music for the enjoyment of the listener. In Bach’s words, music was “for the recreation of the mind…” Bach’s music can sound simple and elegant, yet beneath the surface exists a highly detailed system of counterpoint and fugue. In addition to his responsibilities as church organist and Kapellmeister (chapel master), Bach directed a Collegium Musicum off and on during his tenure in Leipzig. Actually founded by Telemann, this group of amateur and semi-professional musicians met for informal music making at the coffeehouse of Gottfried Zimmermann. Through these performances, Bach was able to hone his skills in writing for a secular audience while giving the people of Leipzig exposure to music outside of the typical church setting. For a modern-day reference to these coffeehouse performances, read this New York Times review of a performance by pianist, Jeremy Denk: A Rollicking Bach Time Is Had By All.
 
When we think of early examples of design thinkers, the first person often cited is inventor, Thomas Edison. Yet more than a century before Edison was born, Bach composed a set of 15 keyboard pieces in two contrapuntal parts and termed them inventions. I’m convinced that we can all learn more about design thinking by studying Bach and listening to anything from his large output of work, be it his cantatas, oratorios, solo partitas, concertos and yes, his inventions!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
The Musical Offering is, inarguably, one of Bach’s most striking works. In 1747, upon a visit to the palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, the aging Bach was challenged to improvise on a difficult theme given to him by the king, himself a formidable composer and flutist. On the spot, Bach improvised a complex fugue at the keyboard. Within two months following his visit, Bach completed The Musical Offering, a series of canons, fugues and other pieces based entirely on Frederick’s theme. The piece was immediately printed (unusual for Bach's time) and presented with a dedication to the king.
 
To get a sense of the complexity of The Musical Offering, consider the first canon, sometimes referred to as a "crab canon." It is to be played forwards by one instrument and backwards by another. (Some call this canon and others in this series “puzzle canons,” since Bach provided us only with hints on how to play them.) There has even been online “chatter” about likening this crab canon to a Möbius strip. Listen and learn more via this blog post on the WFMT website.
 
I, personally, felt Bach’s presence when I toured the special exhibition, The Worlds of M. C. Escher: Nature, Science, and Imagination, at the North Carolina Museum of Art last month. Escher’s work has been associated with Bach’s. In fact, one of Escher’s lithographs is entitled Crab Canon. Have a look here and you’ll begin to see why.
 
Happy puzzling!

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I had dinner with a group of friends at a Turkish restaurant last evening. One in our group, during our entire, leisurely meal, was anxiously awaiting ordering coffee –- real, Turkish coffee –- to go with dessert.
 
When her coffee finally arrived, I noted that a Bach harpsichord concerto was being broadcast via the overhead music system. It was at that moment that I knew what I would share in this space today: the beautiful video of a staged performance of Bach’s Cantata 211, "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" ("Kaffeekantate"). It features the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, conducted by Ton Koopman. The soprano soloist is Anne Grimm.
 
This cantata, really a miniature comic opera, was probably first performed in 1734 or 1735 at Zimmermann’s coffee house in Leipzig. Bach and his librettist, Picander, tell the story of a young woman addicted to coffee. One of my favorite lines is, “If I couldn't, three times a day, be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat." And, of course, I love the fact that Bach wrote a generous flute part!
 
Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Enjoy watching and listening here.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I just ran across a post from 2009 by Fenwick Smith, former Boston Symphony Orchestra flutist and long-time professor of flute at New England Conservatory. The post is titled, Bach’s Partita for Flute Alone: The Dilemma.
 
In this short post, Smith discusses how the opening movement of Bach’s Partita presents a quandary to the flutist. Just imagine: the year was 1717 and Bach was writing his first piece for the newly invented transverse flute, rather than the recorder. Bach ambitiously opens the Partita with an Allemande, writing 18 measures of continuous sixteenth notes before providing the first pause for a breath. Smith then goes on to explain how we flutists, as we study the architecture and logic of Bach’s music, can eventually learn how to manage our breathing without disrupting the flow of the piece –- no mean feat, I might add!
 
This post reminded me of one of my earliest lessons on the Partita with my teacher and mentor, Louis Moyse, whose editions of the complete Bach Sonatas for flute, including the Partita, are published by Schirmer. My “strategy” consisted of choosing to leave out a note or two as a way to make concessions for the challenges in breathing. I recalled Louis approving of this technique in earlier lessons as I studied works by other composers.
 
During this particular lesson, however, Louis stopped me mid-phrase and let me know, in no uncertain terms, that my strategy of leaving out an occasional sixteenth note would not suffice for the Partita. To this day, I remember his exact words:
 
“One note by Bach is more important than all of the other notes by all the other composers combined!”

​by Rebecca Cochran
 
Cantata 35, Geist und Seele wird verwirret (Spirit and soul become confused), is a solo cantata for alto voice. In Bach’s time, the alto part was normally sung by a countertenor, the highest male solo voice type. In this instance, the alto part is quite demanding, so Bach probably wrote it with a specific singer in mind.
 
The cantata consists of seven movements in two parts. Both parts begin with a sinfonia, a sort of orchestral introduction. The entire cantata represents one of Bach’s most joyful moments. Though he would often introduce trumpets and timpani to connote happiness, in this case, he instead chose to use an obbligato solo organ in several movements.
 
If I was given the opportunity to travel back in time, I’d happily choose to be at St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig on September 8, 1726 –- the day that Bach led the first performance of Cantata 35. He, most likely, played the organ part himself!
 
Enjoy this jubilant rendering of the fifth movement, sinfonia presto, performed by the J. S. Bach Foundation of St. Gallen under Rudolf Lutz.

by Rebecca Cochran
 
I was late in discovering le trio Play Bach. A young friend introduced me to Jacques Loussier and his Play Bach Trio just a few years ago, even though the original trio dates back to the late fifties.
 
This French Third Stream jazz piano trio was known for their jazz interpretations of mostly Baroque music, especially the music of Bach. Again, I think Herr Bach would totally approve. See what you think!